278 Day of 365 of What it is Like to Run a Resort

The picture on the right is of our beloved dog, Senna, who died on Tuesday, March 15th. It was a tragic day for us for sure. When I got the call, John and I were in Madison. Someone else had been watching her for us because we were helping John's sister move into her condo in Madison. As soon as I heard, I started sobbing. She was part of our family and we will always miss her. She was 12 years old.

For days we were in shock. Then after talking with our relatives and friends, we decided to get another golden retriever right away - a puppy. We wanted it to be big enough by mid-June when the kids would want to play with her. We were also very concerned about our customer's children being really sad to find no dogs at the resort now. Buddy was put to sleep in November because his body had given out. Now Senna was gone and the customer's children would be very sad.

We found a breeder in Oconomowoc, who had puppies ready. We picked her out on St. Patrick's Day so we thought we should give her an Irish name. John's sister, Kathy, looked up Irish names on the computer. She found one that means Golden princess or Golden queen. We thought that the name was totally appropriate and so she is called, Orla. It takes some getting used to because it is so different, but it is perfect. We picked her up and took her to Door County on March 20th.

So the picture on the left is Orla, of course.

We hadn't had a puppy in 12 years. The adjustment was difficult to say the least. She would wake up every 3 hours for a potty break for the first 4 days. Then she started getting this crazy itch. It was like her butt was on fire and she would run as fast as she could to get away from it. She had one night of sleeplessness with scratching and I called the vet in the morning. It turns out that the leaves under the deck were the culprit and we were to keep her from exploring under the deck from now on. That was not easy with her. She is very stubborn and we had a hard time. I gave her a bath in baking soda water and gave her some anti-itch medicine.

Finally she is sleeping about 8 hours but she is 12 weeks old now. It also took us about 10 weeks to potty train her completely. That was a major disappointment that it took so long. We were in Door County at John's mom's house, and thankfully there were few accidents on the rugs. Mostly her accidents were on the ceramic tile. John's mom has the patience of a saint with us and our puppy. Now she says she misses Orla terribly.

Now we are back at the resort, April 17th, Sunday. We had been back for a few days in early April to vote & start the masses of laundry that have piled up. I did 9 large (4 foot high) bags of laundry on 4/5. The bags are still sitting in the lodge waiting for me to put them away.

In February I started the taxes. It took me about 3 weeks with the strange, and extensive, form that the accountant gave us. It turns out that we lost money again last year. We might gain income from the value of the property, but with all the expenses of upkeeping the resort and cabins, every year we barely squeak by a living. If it weren't for help from things like inheritance and cashing in stock, we wouldn't have been able to get by this spring. It doesn't help that my 23 year old son got in trouble with the law and that took $2,000 of our money either. I just wish he would stay out of trouble!!!

The surprise when we got home was that there was 2 inches of snow on the ground. The lake is mushy and melty around the first foot of shoreline or so and that means we have to watch Orla very closely too.

Dave, our caretaker for the winter, had some projects to keep him busy over the winter months. When we came home on 4/3-5, we went to Menards with him and his truck and our car (and puppy). We spent $2300 on our charge card, and the truck and car were so loaded full of supplies, we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies going down the road. The bathroom in Birch has been expanded a foot in 2 directions and has been re-done completely. The wood floor in Alder is next. All the wood flooring was in the back seat of our car. Orla climbed all over it on the way home. It was so high that she could see out every window and she loved it.

We need to keep up our cabins and every year we try to update or improve something. Last year we couldn't afford to do much so we just painted the outside of a cabin and fixed the basement of the newest cabin, Ironwood. The contractor who built it didn't do a good enough job in the shower there. It leaked terribly into the basement and cracks formed all around the tile. Dave took out all the grout (a huge undertaking) and built support walls under the shower all the way down to the basement floor. What a job! That tile guy who was on main street in Mercer a few years ago is lucky he left. Otherwise we would have sued him for damages. I haven't been able to find any trace of him. That's what we got for trusting a new business in town. I hope others out there didn't suffer our fate too.

So today we take the puppy in for her 12 week check-up and I will go into town to get groceries stocked back up in our kitchen. Maybe I'll even do a load or two of laundry and catch up on some paperwork. We'll see.